So regardless, it’s a pretty inhumane way to die.” Obviously they can’t eat, because they can’t swim. “We don’t know how most of them die, but you can guess that they probably either bleed to death or suffocate, because they can’t swim, so they’re not getting oxygen. “It’s like cutting off your limbs and leaving you to bleed to death,” says Rebecca Regnery, deputy director of wildlife at Humane Society International.

Nearly decapitated, the animal tries to swim off, half-spinning, half-slithering away-another victim of the cruel practice known as shark finning. A second fin is cut off, then a third and a fourth, the other man now standing atop the struggling shark to hold it down.įinally, they slice into the throat to retrieve another hook before kicking the shark back into the water. Another man steps on the right fin, pinning it down as the shark swings its tail in desperation, blood streaming across the deck.

Soon, he’s using a knife to cut into the large pectoral fin on the shark’s left side. As the shark tries to wiggle free, fins flapping against the deck, a shirtless man enters the picture. On a longline fishing boat off the Galapagos Islands, a concerned biologist working undercover as a cook films a horrifying scene.Īs the camera rolls, a blue shark is dragged upside down out of the water, a sharp hook piercing it through the roof of the mouth and out through the side of the face.

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